The need for definition

I have been struggling lately with the need to define exactly what I do and what I would like to do. I understand that the general term for it is "planning" but this is getting more and more foggy everyday. And to add to the blurriness, the human factor also gets in the way, because sometimes you might think you are doing what you should be doing but then people around you get in the way.

I like the people in Anomaly because they do not feel the need to define what it is that they do and simply brand themselves as solution providers. You have a problem, they solve it for you. Generally, it helps if this is a communication solution. I also think I liked something that Bogdan Naumovici said about his shop, 23...something about ideas that solve problems. Maybe that is what all these big idea briefs are about.

So the more I think about planning as a term, the less I understand what it is that we are supposed to be doing: Goodby was heralding the death of planning, saying that planners had lost their way when they broke from the creative circle and entered the consultant circle. Truth of the matter is sometimes you need to be a consultant because someone needs to re-organize positionings, to prepare research and to come up with platforms for brand management. So planning as creative stimulus is not enough. Neither is planning as marketing consultance.

I am not trying to figure out a solution for this. I just wonder, what with the changes that are about to happen in my life, where exactly the value lies when you factor in human intervention too. And then I think of me and the things I know how to do well and I wonder what the definition for that is.

I know this makes no sense, but hey, it's my blog :-P